JM^'^'J^JJ^W^^N, 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ELEUSIS 



ELEUSIS 



A POEM 



X 



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b\(iLog bang Idcjv KeW elc' vnb X'^ov' ' 

oi6e uev ftlov relevrdv, 
oldev 6e SlogSotov hpxciv. 

— PINDAK. 




CHICAGO 

1890 



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Copyrighted, A. D. 1890. 



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DEDICATED TO 

W. H. S. 



Oleics is mourns beside the sea, 

Her secret pomp of ivorship fled ; 
But, though her juries/ and rite he 

Still lives the Eternal Mystery. 



Nor can the Eleusinia die: 

What though the centuries wax and wane, 
From each new age sounds out again 

The Eternal Questioning, Whence and Why ! 



CANTO 1. 



PRELUDE. 



O Life ! resplendent breaks thy morn ; 
And Youth speeds on with rosy lip, 
From brimming bowls of joy to sip, 

Or empty Pleasure's drinking-horn. 

O'er sunny plains, by singing streams. 
Through years that seem a holiday, 
He flies, hope-pinioned, on his way 

Toward the palace of his dreams. 

At morn a child, the noon-tide sun 

On limbs more stalwart looketh down ; 
And soon his setting glories crown 

A staff-supported skeleton. 

The silent halls one more receive, 

To swell their store of voiceless guests ; 
The heir is master of bequests. 

And even Love forgets to grieve. 



10 Eleusis 

A play whose acts but triply change, 
And progress simple to its close ; 
Yet more than triply charged with woes, 

And grief's broad range and counter-range. 

And what beyond ? Does Death o'errule 
The vanished genius of the clay, 
Dissolve the soul, and one decay 

Embrace philosopher and fool ? 

Such doubts and problems haunt the brain, 
In youth or age of every man ; 
And, stifle them as best we can. 

They press insistent back again. 

Their ghostly spectres mock and frown ; 
No Nostradamus knows the spell. 
Nor book nor wise exorcist's bell 

Can thrust their taunting phantoms down. 

Oh, how above the funeral urn 

Their pinions hover ; and we feel, 
As tears their deepest founts unseal, 

That life is mystery to its kern ! 



\ 
Eleusis 1 1 

Their solemn silence bringeth fear, 

And passionate will kneels down in dread ; 
For, standing by the sleeping dead, 

We know eternal forms are near. 

It may be bootless task, in sooth. 
To grapple with diviner things. 
Proclaim us priests as well as kings. 

And seek the mystic source of Truth, 

Yet fly the search and shirk the test ! 

In flight, contentment who can find ? 

The deeper yearnings of the mind 
Cannot be lightly lidled to rest. 

If life be fate, if worlds advance 
Self-driven on their axles steep, 
Our lives are accidents, we leap 

At dying to the arms of chance, — 

Then joy and pain are phantoms too; 

To love is sweet illusive spell ; 

And all the thoughts that surge and swell 
Within our souls, are most untrue. 



12 Eleiisis 

So life were false, and hope a lie ; 
The higher life for which we long 
Only a mocking siren-song 

To lure and lead us on to die. 

Life, to me thyself sublime ; 
Reveal me why I came to be, 
And let my soul, though dimly, see 

The secret horoscope of Time ! 



CANTO I. 



No WHEEL may turn forever round, 
Nor bell forever strike and swing : 
The broken bell will cease to ring, 

The wheel lie prostrate on the ground. 

The Vv^earing w^aste of hopes and fears 
Unwinds the primal spring of power. 
And action weakening hour by hour 

In sloAV suspension disappears. 

And so, grim cup, wherein some brain 

Has seethed and boiled with bm-ning thought, 
And to excess of mastery brought. 

Was quick to measure loss and gain, 

Power's supremest mock and mime. 
Life's palace now forgotten urn ! 
For thee no more the wheel wdll turn, — 

The bell has rung its dying chime. 



Eleusis 

Yet whither gone, Soul ? Whence sprung 
Thy mighty mastery of the past ? 
Dost wander homeless, or at last 

Indwell the countries of the sun ? 

Or, is this all, — these empty eyes, 

This mockery grim of life's fair prime ? 
Is this the consummate fruit of Time, 

And the proud heirdom of the wise ? 



Eleusis 



II. 



Alas for him whose harp outrung 

The first low minor-chord of doubt, 
And gave that bitter keynote out 

Whereto uncounted souls have sung. 

Alas for him who, out of tune 

With the young earth's clear-voiced refrain, 
Made tears the burden of his strain. 

And saw a clouded sky at noon. 

Alas for him ! Alas for me. 

Who am the heir of his emprise ! 

For heirdom lives, though lordship dies. 

And doubt entails an endless fee. 

Thus cycles turning round and round, 
And years to centuries grovring fast, 
From out the dim and vista'd past 

Tumultuous voices louder sound. 



1 6 Eleusis 

'Till, ringing from the earth and sky, 
The wide world heareth only this : 
' Death ruleth Life ; Life's fuller bliss 
Is Sleep, — its fullest, swift to die.' 



Eleusis 



t? 



III. 



O HAUNTING image of my age, 

That risest with me in the morn, 
And saith with evening voice of scorn, 
'Come clasp me, and thy love assuage ! ' 

haffling Love, whose mocking eyes 

From pools of searchings deep are seen. 
Or where high mountain-turrets lean 
Standest depict against the skies, — 

1 long for thee ; my heart aflame 

No other bride or mistress knows : 
Yet on my waning century goes, 
And longing cannot crown its aim. 

Yet cries my heart, ' Whate'er may come, 
I will thy perfect contours hold, 
And to my passion shall unfold 

The lips that hitherto are dumb ; 



1 8 Eleusis 

' What though the vaulted heaven fall, 

What though my soul go down to death, 
To feel for once the eternal breath 
Will be rich guerdon tor it all ! ' 



Eleusis ig 



IV. 



O BROADER scope of life, divined 
By only those whose gaze intense 
Surmounts the barriers set by sense, 

And passes what has been defined ; 

O wide conception leaping o'er 

The bounds that earlier knowledge gave, 
What though the fearful feebly rave 

And cry, ' Oh, tarry on the shore '; 

And Avhat though many a wreck decays 
By deep divining's boundless sea, 
Where many a tempest's full degree 

Proud launched convoys disarrays ; 

All travellers pass through dangerous lands. 
Or risk the storms of treacherous seas ; 
All gain is bought by loss of ease. 

And glory yields to daring hands. 



20 Eleusis 

To Doric moods the sails are set, 

And songs pursue the vessel's keel. 
And far horizons half reveal 

Mist-shrouded tower and parapet. 

And Mystery's deeji enchantment falls 

From slumbrous depths of sapphire sky, 
And Hope uprears a fabric high 

Behind the heights of unknown walls. 

Across the soul's responsive strings 

The touch of heavenly music sweeps, 
And my intensest ardor leaps 

To reach the inmost heart of things. 

Then onward fly, bark, from shore ; 

Before, behind, is due acclaim ; 

I go to win a deathless name, 
Or die as others died before ! 



Eleusis 21 



V. 



Yet what the silence of the dark 
In vaulted cavern dim and deep, 
Where Echo, Echo lies asleep. 

And Fear forgets to whisper ' Hark ! ' 

Or what the silence of the peak 

Surmounting wastes of barren plain. 
Or that of yon debateless main 

Whose rigid secrets none can speak ; 

Aye, what are these to yonder track 

Where Silence shrieks, ' 'Tis I, 'Tis I! 
I Avatch the centuries wax and die, 

And hear the wheels go slipping back. 

* From agony my voice is born ; 

My earthly sisters all are dumb ; 
Afar I see new races come 
To perish 'neath the heel of scorn ; 



22 Eleusis 

' Yet what I know I cannot tell ; 

My realm divides all time in twain ; 
And whether life grows life again, 
My lips are powerless to foretell.' 

No traveller walks that border shore, 

And thence returns with pilgrim song, 
With foreign lays and stories long, 

And robes that strangers wove and wore ; 

But he who goes repairs not thence ; 

The speechless cycles turn and turn : 

Our only solace is an urn, 
And Memory's poignant recompense. 



Eleiisis 2^ 



VI. 



AxD so my heart and hoi3e grows weak, 
And life's fate-flung contemjDtuous boon 
Is dawn that blights before the noon, 

Or child that does not live to speak. 

Are years so sweet that toil and pain 
Should buy the few we linger here ? 
Or life within this hemisphere 

As sweet as bitter its disdain ? 

But passion lives though potence die, 
And love of life lives longer still; 
' Oh Fortune, treat me as ye will. 
But let me live ! ' the ages sigh. 

Yet weariness is near to rest. 

And suffering ofttimes bringeth sleep ; 

So I, although to-day I weej). 
Perhaps hereafter may be blest. 



24 Eleusis 



VII. 



Yet restless Thought, with straining eye, 
And borne at Will's implacate need 
Above the citadels of creed 

Where undisturbed horizons lie, 

Spies out through distance dim and vast 
Life's broad exjDanse of sombre sea, 
Whose billows touch the same degree 

As in the countless centuries past. 

To swell it myriad streamlets haste, 
And out it myriad streamlets go. 
In ceaseless counterpoise of flow 

And ceaseless weaving up of waste. 

Now here, now there, the subtle stream. 
And now returning whence it came, 
Sweeps through my heart and wakes to fame, 

Or thrills the rose with joy supreme. 



Eleusis 2^ 

Wrapped thus in life's more fleeting flood, 
The true and deathless life lives on ; 
That which hath made me paragon, 

And of the gods decayless blood. 

For, held and prisoned by some power, 
Within this life the truer dwells, 
'Till heavenly sign and dial tells 

The full and free and destined hour. 

The oneness making what we are, 

The eternal stamp that gives me form ; 
No shock of elemental storm, 

No crash of planet meeting star, 

No blotting out of sun and moon, 
No chaos boundless and profound, 
Can slay : in chaos I am found, 

For I am night and I am noon. 



26 Eleusis 



VIII. 

Yet,' Memory lost, thy latest heir 

Demands thy urns that border time, 
Thy cenotaphs in clime on clime. 

Thy earlier joyanca or despair. 

That palimpsest unfold to-day. 

And 'neath the lately written lines 
Read out my lineage from the signs 

Whose deeper mystery says me nay. 

No answer comes ; or if reply 

Floats echoing through my pillar'd hall, 
Its wordless echoes rise and fall, 

Approach and voiceless hasten by ; 

They waste, they wane ; my halls of thought 
Disperse the strain that once was song. 
And sadly Silence floats along 

To mock with mystery what was sought. 



Eleusis 2y 

For 'mid my labyrinth rooms that ring 
With each its own responsive tone, 
The true refrain grows quite unknown 

That somewhere heavenly voices sing ; 

Or, swelled by Nature's echoing throat, 
Betrays its birthright, and with lies 
Deceives, dissuades, destroys, denies. 

With false and yet enchanting note. 

For I who hear am he who sings ; 

And what is sung, that too is Me ; 

For I am one and yet am three, — 
The listener, singer, and the strings. 

And all in self ; yet cannot tell 

What strains I hear, or if I sang. 
Or what the notes, or how they rang 

From out my mad musician's cell. 

And so I circle round and round. 

And paths once trod again I tread ; 
For life is life, though men be dead, 

And death is — failing to be found. 



28 Eleusis 



IX. 

For life has orbit more immense 

Than swiftest comets overfly ; 

We pass this human orbit by, 
And slide from out this arc of sense, 

And passing onward in my round, 
As one who coasts a foreign shore 
Sees strange growths never seen before 

And races hitherto unfound, 

So I shall see what is unseen ; 

And, casting arc and arc behind. 

My more and more enfranchised mind 

Shall learn what present mysteries mean ; 

High tides shall roll where shallows lay. 
And desert lands grow rich with bloom. 
And mountain peaks whose summits loom 

To dim the rising of the day. 



Eleusis 2g 

Shall sink beneath my upward wing 

That mounts the eternal vault of Truth 
With fresh and growing sense of youth 

And the strong ardor of the Spring. 



50 Eleusis 



X. 



Yet is there something still untraced : 
Some link that hides its magic gold, — 
Some bud whose petals still enfold 

Their secret, — forces yet displaced. 

Oh, could we see where closely press 
The arcs of being, could we stand 
Where sliding down from either hand 

They meet and closely coalesce, 

Then Doubt at last were doubly dead ; 
And my new orbit, cloudless grown, 
Would sweep thro' Truth's imperial zone, 

Eternal sunshine overhead. 

But darkness now encumbers all. 
And silence answers to my cry ; 
The heights of thought my wings defy, 

Yet lure me onward till I fall. 



Eleusis 31 

Beneath the peaks of pure desire 
I lie in helpless longing low, 
And feel a dull resentment grow 

To burn my being with its fire. 

With bruised heart, with broken wing, 
My purpose countervailed by fate, 
I scorn the low, I loathe the great. 

And every seen and unseen thing. 



52 Eleusis 



XI. 



O STRUGGLIXG Soul ! thy heirdom thrills 
With hope that maddens, then denies ; 
'- 1 am thy love I ' the phantom cries, 
And then with treacherous scorning kills. 

Move onward, Soul, within thy round. 

Nor strive the eternal springs to quaff ; 
The Gods at high aspirers laugh, 

And will is left an hour unbound ; 

Then, harsh with mockery and with scorn, 
Defiance meets thy wild appeals ; 
And dark Despair, unheeded, feels 

'T were better to have been unborn. 



Eleusis ^j 



XII. 

For, living, one must live by rule ; 

We tread the j)atlis our fathers wore, 
Nor look behind, nor look before, 

But nod the noddings of the fool 

Who knows not why, but follows feet 
That echo ' Follow ' in his ear, — 
E'en though it be some frenzied Lear 

Who cries ' Advance ' or calls ' Retreat.' 

So longing souls must go astray. 

And, struggling on 'mid murk and mire, 
Feel life grow barren of desire. 

Or turn like hunted stag at bay 

To face the foe when hope denies, 

And drink the poison-pointed spear : 
— Life to the vanquished is not dear 

As death to him who boldly dies ! 



^4 Eleusis 



XIII. 

' Rise up,' one saith, ' to higher ends ; 
Proclaim thee better than the rest, 
And feel the passion in thy breast 
That iDure and lofty striving sends.' 

And answering to him, ' What is this ? 
A moment's self -deceptive joy, 
A dream that waking will destroy, 

A phantom starlight must dismiss. 

' Its fabric falls and melts away 

And sinks to wed its kindred dust, 
Because some old half-hidden lust 
Stalks laughing from its false decay.' 

Then death of Hope comes slowly on ; 
My springs of action cease to flow. 
And o'er my sjDirit broods a woe 

Like that which shadowed Babylon. 



Eleusis ^5 

My fertile valleys wear a pall 

That yon dark mount of sorrow spread, 
And the thick ashes of the dead 

Come slowly down to bury all. 

Dumb, senseless, all unhurt by pain, 

Inert as matter I can it be 

That aspirations vainly flee 
And like mirages wax and wane ? 

What means the native power of art, 

And what the implanted love of truth ? 
Are these but visions haunting Youth, . 

To charm and then enrage the heart ? 

Is living some most tragic play 

Whereat remorseless purjDose smiles, 
And longings only witless wiles 

That first enchant and finally slay ? 

So were it better swift to fall 

As tree beneath the axman's blow : 
Aye, sometimes Misery whispers low, 

'Twere better not to live at all.' 



j6 Eleusis 



XIV. 

O ADAMANTINE reigii of Law ! 

Relax thine edicts now and then ; 

Display sweet mercy unto men, 
Discerning in thyself some flaw. 

What means the bowing of the pine, 

Or what the grain-field's bended head, 
When storm and tempest frenzy-led 

Whirl o'er the earth in rage condign ? 

Day veils his banner unto eve, 

And Night lays off her starry crown ; 

The planets fall supinely down, 
And the high tides their conquests leave. 

' To yield, to yield ! ' their voices cry ; 
' Contention brings suj)reme defeat ; 
And they Avho deign not to retreat 
Disarmed and fetter-laden lie.' 



Eleusis 57 

Why can we not the reason know, 

Or why are sense and soul so blind ? 
Whence comes the mystery of the mind, 

And longing's endless ebb and flow ? 

High barriers their thwarting bring ; 
And lo-like from land to land, 
From plains of snow to plains of sand, 

We fly the Fates' remorseless sting. 



^8 Eleusis 



XV. 



Yet waves uproll to meet the shore 

Where many a joyous blossom sways, 
And oft and oft the tide delays 

As if enamored more and more. 

This ocean-lover longs to press 

The fair earth-blossom to his side, 
And bear it on returning tide 

To cheer his far-off loneliness ; 

And tides that rise with longing swell 
To court these joyous maids of June, 
May reach them some victorious noon. 

And bear in triumph, — who can tell ? 

So hearts that long and tides that roll 

Of feeling and divine desire 

May reach, by force of longing, higher, 
More priceless treasures of the soul. 



Eletisis 39 



XVI. 

Sweet Summer clouds, celestial fleet 
That ploughs sublime a sapphire sea ! 
Fain would I sail as calm as ye 

To some fair haven of retreat. 

Meseems for you some pilot stout 
Maintains the rudder in his grip, 
While I alone within my ship 

Without a helmsman drift about, 

And driven onward by the blast, 
Or rising on some mural swell. 
My boasted skill cannot foretell 

The shore whereon I may be cast. 

So, knoAving naught of how to sail, 
'T were better let the wind direct ; 
For, destined finally to be wreckt, 

Why toil and labor but to fail ? 



40 Eleusis 



XVII. 

They say, ' He tried, but trying failed,' 

They brand him false and craven knight ; 
And so the world in headlong flight 

Abandons him at whom she railed. 

The sands of many a hopeless coast 

Are heaped with sjDars and wrecks unnamed, 
Stout oaken ribs by tempest strained. 

And now and then a capstan post. 

These sailed them forth one Summer morn, 
One Summer morn with canvas proud ; 
To fanfares shouted by the crowd, 

They sailed for lands beyond the Horn. 

And now on yonder surf -worn sand 

Their ghosts go wandering : yet as brave 
Go forth new keels to breast the wave, 

And carry love's or gain's command. 



Eleusis 41 

So runs the world : and those who win 
Are hailed the mighty and the great ; 
But he who reached the goal too late 

Is guilty of his failure's sin. 

What though he strove and strove his best, 
And nobly striving broke his heart ? 
Success in every realm of art 

Proclaims herself the crucial test I 



42 Eleusis 



XVIII. 

O WONDROUS moment, when Success 
To ardent effort yields her bride, 
And joyous from the altar's side 

They pass to perfect happiness. 

The midnight anguish is forgot ; 
The vigil hour, the weary year, 
Dismissed from memory's hemisphere, 

Depart and are remembered not. 

Forgot is all the toilsome way 

O'er which they trod with lingering limbs ; 

Proud Nature sings their nuptial hymns. 
And forth they walk into the day. 

They walk to meet the golden west j 
Across they pass the purple hills ; 
And where eternal Summer spills 

Her urns of sunshine, dwell at rest. 



Eleusis 4^ 



XIX. 

But what the hope that sailor feels, 
Or what the joy of lover's dream ? 
Envenomed Cupid's arrows stream, 

And painted barks have strengthless keels. 

The booming guns of frigate vast. 
The signal-lights athwart the sea, 
The surf wild-breaking on the lea, 

The splitting sail and cracking mast ! 

O hapless crew, ye sailed, ye sailed, 
Familiar shores were at your side ; 
Yet gazing on your homes ye died. 

And breathing native air ye failed. 

So standing where through thresholds wide 
Success displays her vistas long. 
The soul is tripped by passion's thong. 

And finds the fairest hopes denied. 



44 Eleusis 



XX. 



If Hope be budded, snow and sleet 
Despoil the jDromise of the flower ; 
What then is Summer's softest shower, 

Or June, with fervid burst of heat ; 

Or what are floods of evening dew 

To barren deserts of despair, 

Where seeds nor germs nor rootlets are, 
Nor even rosemary or rue ? 

The rebel hand of bold emprise 

Has sown the field with deathful dearth : 
The seed has perished ere its birth, 

And Sorrow sits to mock the wise ; 

And suns unheeded fire the east ; 

Unheeded moons to crescent wane ; 

The stars unheeded o'er their plain 
May move, — I know not, — or have ceased. 



Eleusis 4^ 

An iron crown around my head, 

My hands in fearful fetters bound, 
A faineant king in mockery crowned 

To rule o'er noble purpose dead, 

To king the buried hopes of youth, 

Behold Ambition's dying throe, 

To pomp my ow^n expiring woe 
And rule the funeral rites of Truth. 

Oh, who is strong to conquer Hope, 

And conquering sing his bridal song, 
Or win the heirdoms that belong 

To Life's diviner astroscope ? 



46 Eleusis 



XXI. 

Then let me venture to thy wall, 

O Cloister crowned with quiet age, 
And as one worn with pilgrimage 

Repose my limbs within thy hall. 

Let me adventure to thy shrine, 
O Melancholy, mild and sweet. 
Where woes with absolution meet 

And souls by suffering grow divine. 

O sweet Seclusion, let thy spell 
Unseal the spirit's blinded eye. 
And thoughts immeasurably high 

Sing me my long-sought canticle. 



Eleusis 4j 



XXII. 

I DONNED the gray and sackcloth robe, 
Around my waist the knotted cord ; 
And, every passion held in ward, 

Turned round the convent's silent globe. 

My soul from thought of wrong was swept, 
My penance done most joyously ; 
And in my new-born ecstasy 

Before the altar stejDS I wept. 

Yet when in Summer glowed the sun, 
My thoughts refused to dwell apart ; 
I felt the impetuous currents start 

That through all life and limits run ; 

The matin song in vain outrang 

Through echoing aisles its soft refrain, 
And the dull vespers all in vain 

My li^js in tired responses sang. 



Eleusis 

Aside my thralling robes I threw ; 

I passed the convent gates between ; 

The lindens shook their silver sheen, 
And up the lark in circles flew ; 

The world rang out an anthem grand, 

More sweet than choirs our convent kept, 
And the pure voice of Nature swept 

In concert over sea and land. 

Then, pondering, new thoughts came and went 
My soul with sense of joy was fraught. 
And the broad world superbly wrought 

Seemed bounteous, pure, benevolent. 

Fair robes of hope Queen Nature wore ; 

Responsive songs she sang to me ; 

And I, as from a boundless sea. 
Stepped forth upon the solid shore. 



CANTO II, 



PRELUDE. 



Away, Soul, and seek thy kind 
In air and earth, in fire and sea ! 
For Nature's reahii to thee is free, 

And only Nature is not blind. 

The mists have fled ; the prisoned sense 
That sought from self the All to know 
Has burst its chain and slain its foe, 

And finds in Nature joy intense. 

No more with grief my days ally ; 

To lonely woe I say, ' Farewell '; 

No more on sorrow's surging swell 
I float between the earth and sky. 

No more my days I lead alone, 

Without a heart to feel for mine ; 
For Nature pours her mystic wine. 

And says 'Thou art my own, my own.' 



52 Eleusis 

The seasons come, the seasons go ; 

The year hangs up its finished crown ; 

A century's suns and moons go down, 
And on a thousand cycles flow ; 

And thrones and kings and reahns decay ; 

The builders perish, and their fanes ; 

The star of empire dims and wanes, 
And ruins mount on ruins gray ; 

Yet glows the sun as when his beam 

Did voice the mute Memnonian lyre ; 
As then he burns the east with lire. 

And drinks at night the western stream. 

Why to my heart's remotest shore 
Exalts the tide of joy its might, 
When yonder star's thin shaft of light 

Comes glittering through my casement door ? 

O light that shines to me, to me, 
From Sirius' doubly-distant sun. 
Thou dost, meseems, imprison one 

Of Nature's unseen ministry ! 



Eleusis 5^ 

Break o'er my lonely vigil hour 

Thy eentiiried silence I let me learn 
What will or passion in thee burn, 

And what the limit of thy power. 

And there are germs defying sight, 
That dwell in every forest tree ; 
And with a throb we cannot see 

Upswells the bosom of the Night ; 

All round me, flying here and there, 
I hear the sweep of myriad wings, 
Unseen, yet felt ; and now outrings 

A subtle music through the air. 

It sings : ' By myriad, myriad strands 
Ye grow, of us the unseen, part ; 
And Nature clasj^s ye to her heart. 

And holds your pulses in her hands.' 

So, Soul, away through all the earth, 
And seek thy kindred at the poleS;, 
Or where the central river rolls 

All liissing from the sun's hot hearth. 



5^ Eleusis 

Build up to Nature altars high ; 

Invoke her spirit ; then my heart 
Shall find the greatest crown of art 

To learn from living how to die ! 



CANTO II. 



I. 

High priest of Nature, altars grand 
I reared in ev^ery separate zone, 
Amid the ice-floes white and lone, 

And on the south and blazing sand. 

So northward on my shallop drove, 
Till icy grew the spars and ropes, 
And waning sun and fading hoj^es 

With high ecstatic purpose strove. 

I coasted on past coral isles, 

Far onward to the burning south, 
And where to cool the fevered mouth 

The treacherous lotus-fruit beguiles. 

Then wandered 'mid the barren Avastes 
That stretch beyond the Asian meads, 
And heard the sighing of the reeds 

Where soft and fleet Hydaspes hastes. 



<y6 Eleusis 

On Indian flowers I lay reclined 

At noon beneath the banyan wide, 

And watched the scorched and sluggish tide 

Rise up to catch the cooling wind. 

And o'er the Andalusian plain 

Where rarely grows the purple wine, 
I saw the dusk and half divine 

And passionate damosels of Spain. 

Mid Paestum's Doric shafts I sang, 

And where Antinous drank the Nile, 
And Java's far and famous isle 

To my new rite of worship rang. 

In every clime, by every sea. 

In zones that interchanging lie — 
Of temjDerate heat and tropic sky, 

O Nature, have I worshipped thee ! 



Eleusis ^y 



n. 



What joy to watch the bolts of fire 
Shoot out the crimson bow of dawn, 
And Night's dumb silence leave the lawn 

To Morning's glad exultant choir ! 

With mellow throats they greet the sun, 
And usher in the court of Day ; 
While all the Hours at eager play 

Around his chariot garland-hung, 

And clinging to his bounding wheels, 
Fling rosy missiles to and fro, 
Beneath whose iridescent blow 

The genius of the darkness reels. 

The sentinel peaks in splendor vie. 

And gorgeous ensigns o'er them rear ; 
And silent air, with rose-red ear, 

Listens while Phoebus mounts on high. 



5^' Eleusis 

Then sunlight steals to forests deep, 

And down the mountams to the sea ; 
And now, where Capri's caverns be, 

Awakes the sajDphire from its sleep. 



Eleusis 59 



III. 



What joy to tread the forest free, 
To press the sod with daisies pied, 
And feel the deep and pulsing tide 

Of Life's fresh vernal mystery ! 

What joy in forests, when alone, 

The depths of slumbrous aisles to pass. 
And hear the solemn matin mass 

That Nature's celebrants intone ; 

The lofty nave in reverence bows, 

The transepts wake from night and sleep, 
And through the mighty minster sweep 

The answering antiphones of vows ; 

And I, with these of one descent. 
My orisons in concert pay. 
And out into the full-orbed day 

Walk consecrated and content. 



6o Eleusis 



IV. 



What joy to watch the glittering train 
Of evening mount the curved sky, 
And hear the breezes lightly fly 

To kiss the lips of sighing grain ! 

The lambent eye of yonder star, 
The ivory shoulder of the moon. 
The full content of midnight's noon, 

And rush of yonder planet's car ! 

What joy to feel the impassioned sense 
Of kinship with the sea and earth, 
And claim a brotherhood by birth 

With Nature, measureless, immense ! 



Eleusis 6 1 



At night I came to Ocean's swell ; 
The hunted billows shoreward flew, 
And, like to suppliants come to sue, 

At Earth's great altar-steps they fell. 

The rocks with rhythmic pulses beat 

Through their deep hearts, as swiftly down 
Each giant cast his mural crown 

At California's haughty feet. 

Fear sped on velvet wings to me, 

And brooding o'er my sinking head 
Revealed the faces of the dead 

That looked from out the western sea. 

And storm-sped voices, frenzy-strung. 
To my new sense condignlj^ SAvept ; 
Till all my manhood moaned and wept 

O'er ship and sailor-man undone. 



62 Eleusis 

On some high crest he floateth on, 

With eyes upturned to heaven in vain ; 
Or lies in valley of disdain, 

Earth's mute and sea-tossed paragon. 



Eleiisis 63 



VI. 



Resistless now to some command, 
And creeping, creeping from afar. 
The moonlight and the evening star 

Behold new tides assail the land. 

The shadows yield to flood and foam, 

The shore-bird spreads his inland wing, 
And the dusk-charioted ocean-king 

Drives on though rocks and sea-weed moan. 

So I am slain in life's excess ; 

My transient heirdom is not mine ; 
-■ But the broad surge and swell divine 
Hath mastery never growing less. 



64 Eleusis 



VII. 

I SIT and ponder, when the tide 
With languid step begins return, 
As from the tomb and funeral urn 

Comes Grief, whose darling one has died. 

Great tears are wept for bounded Hope ; 

The baffled mourner voiceless lies ; 

And the deep-shrouding Darkness cries, 
• All passion dwells in fettered scope ; 

Dusk hands outreach to baffle thee ; 

Thy tides of knowledge backv/ard fall. 
As the dark powers of Nature call 

From world-wide empire yonder sea.' 



Eleiisis 65 



VIII. 

Fair hamlet like brave girdle clasjDed 
Round yonder mistress of the plain, 
Lead forth yom' last well-axled wain, 

And leave your useless doors unhasped. 

From far away your laden ships 

Sail homeward-wafted to your bay, 
And sailors sea-tossed many a day 

Are pressing fond resistless lips. 

Yet where your emerald girdle clings, 
And where your weary vessels rest, 
And where, with passion's perfect zest 

The home-come sailor-lover sings. 

Shall fall the mocking ashes pale 

Ere midnight-bell salutes the morn. 
And Nature clothed in fire and scorn 

Will laugh to hear her children wail ; 



66 Eleitsis 

Will tread with soulless step the shore, 

AYitli soulless hand your vineyards crush, 
And in the current of her rush 

Whirl Life to Death's domain once more. 



Eleusis 6y 



IX. 



So, leopard, leap from out thy lair ! 
The jungles reek with heavy mist, 
And still the breezes are, and whist 

The hot and burned-out Indian air. 

Leap up, O leojDard ! 'tis the hour 

The lonely traveller pants with fear 
Lest thy unechoing step be near, 

And stops at every breath to cower. 

Leap lightly on the easy prey, 

And glut thy angry maw once more 
Thou art the grave of half a score, 

Now add another one to-day! 



68 Eleusis 



X. 



One boundeth joyous toward the east, 

But halts where falls th' embattled shore ; 
Bright envoys come the waters o'er 

To herald Morning's golden feast ; 

His heart asjDires to distance dim, 
As cag^d bird it beats its wires. 
And pants to warm it at the fires 

That burn the far horizon's rim. 

Yet cliffs lie here, and deep below 

The Ocean's wide unending room, — 
Man, thou art but earthly groom. 

And Nature's arms around thee grow. 

Look, long to fly ! yet she, thy bride. 
With rosy limbs around thee flung. 
Will hold thee while thy strength is young, 

To spurn thee when thy youth has died ! 



Eleusis 6p 



XI. 



From purpling mounds in early June 
I pluck sweet violets nodding up, 
The trillium and its graceful cup 

That holds the dew-wine unto noon. 

Of thick green grass a round I weave 
To knit my violets lest they fall, 
And sitting under oak-tree tall 

I hear Spring's passion pant and heave. 

I hear the weaves with Summer feet 

Come gay and gladsome to the shore, 
And in the purple skies a score 

Of wide-winged curlews float and meet ; 

I hear the sounds of axe and wedge 
On busy ships that wait to sail, 
The sailors answering to the hail 

Of captain at the water's edge ; 



JO Eleusis 

The noise of myriad hands that go 
Responsive to a myriad brains : 
Here is the pulsing of the veins, 

And the great world's impetuous flow. 



Eleusis yi 



XII. 

But this slight round of grass, — ah me ! 
See how it breaks I and all around 
My violets lie upon the ground, 

Or fluttering off impatiently 

Are lured away by ardent breath 
Of June's impulsive lover-breeze, 
Who strays now, loitering 'mid the trees, 

Or goes coquetting o'er the heath. 

And so the hopes of yonder sail. 

The beatings of the captain's heart, 
The sailors urgent to depart, 

Some envious wind may countervail ; 

And hurling ship in frenzied glee 

Through straits and islands slightly known, 
May sink them where on coral prone 

They grow the substance of the sea. 



y2 Beush 



XIII. 

Stately across the world she trod. 

Her arms with gold and purple hung ; 
And wide the colors rich she flung 

O'er heath and distant tree and sod. 

The flame of setting sun grew pale 
Beside the halo Autumn wore, 
And 'neath her feet the forest floor 

Glowed like the wine in Holy Grail. 

The mists of fine October blue 

Were interwove with crimson rare, 
As through the rich and ripened air 

Bright Autumn leaves enamored flew ; 

Her wake was such as southern keel 

Leaves flashing 'neath an evening sky 
Red, purple, crimson, gold, defy 

All words but his who lives to feel ! 



Eleusis 73 

At last she stood with crimson moath 
Where dusk horizons dimly stand, 
And with one kiss to sky and land 

Went hastening onward to the south. 



y^ Eleusis 



XIV. 

And, as she passed, from northern strand 
A royal youth leaped lightly down, 
With crystals flashing in his crown 

And icy sceptre in his hand; 

Fair frozen clouds his limbs arrayed. 
In frosty sandals sped his feet, 
And storms of Summer-slaying sleet 

Drove on, his deathful cavalcade ; 

And Color fled in frenzied fear. 

And Hope put on her funeral wreath ; 
And here and there upon the heath 

Lay travellers frozen to their bier. 



Eleusis 75 



XV. 

Across I trod the royal world, 
The kingly seas I fled across ; 
Yet haunting, like the albatross 

With tireless pinion never furled, 

Care hovered o'er my weary Avay ; 
At night she poised above my bed. 
And round my bowed and aching head 

Went circling through the wearier day. 

No power could drive her in defeat ; 
She drank my salt and flowing tears. 
And through the long expanse of years 

Drove Hope in dastardly retreat. 

For Nature hath a step of steel 

To crush her children when they cry ; 
They plead, and pleading yet must lie 

Beneath her feet who cannot feel. 



76 Eleusis 



XVI. 

Joy faints at DisapjDointment's stride, 
And Crime is eldest son of Want : 
From phantasies that mock and haunt 

Our mental vision, who can hide ? 

We clutch the dark and leaden clamps. 
Or wrench in vain the steely bars, 
To find our only trophies scars 

And death amid the prison damps. 

The instinctive passion to be free 
Alone prevents our death in life ; 
And in a never-ending strife 

We fight with foes we cannot see. 



Eleusis 77 



XVII. 

For Nature, Nature lies asleep 
Within her far creative halls, 
Where Being's ocean swells and falls 

And subtle currents roll and sweep. 

She lies encouched 'neath vaults sublime, 
And held in sleejj's eventless spell : — 
Silence — but that clepsydras tell 

In century-drops the lapse of time. 

Vague eons stretch their boundless plains 
To years when first her sleep began ; 
She slumbers since the birth of man, 

And now his aged century wanes. 

'T is thus the creative throe recoils. 
And weary pain is slejDt away ; 
For action, weakening, will slay 

Unless sweet rest repair the spoils. 



yS Eleusis 



XVIII. 



Yet now her breasts upsurge, she flings 
Aside the robe whose touch is pain, 
And the great pangs of birth again 

Awake great Nature queen of kings. 

Yet who of mortals niay behold 

Her fructive waking undismayed, 
And gaze on Nature disarrayed 

Without a terror uncontrolled ! 

Her latest children will dismiss 

Our lives and memory to decay ; 
For Nature, wakening, will slay 

Her earlier progeny for this. 

So Life advances ; Death defies 

A full and perfect-rounded hour, 
And the strong man's divinest power 

Leaps to new being when he dies. 



Eleusis 79 

The eternal cycle stately rounds 

From node to node its mighty track; 
No century slides completely back 

When out its solemn requiem sounds ; 

But all this arc of life we know 

Shall meet and live in one divine ; — 
Sons keep the father's storied line, 

And Birth gives Death a master-blow. 



8o Eleusis 



XIX. 

O MYSTERY when the first red sun 

Looked o'er the world's extremest east, 
And mystery when the solemn feast 

Prcclahned Eleusis' rite w^as done ; 

mystery now on western wing 

High brooding over present time, — 
In every age and every clime 
Thou art the curse of everything ! 

Yet who can chain the eternal mind, 

And say to Knowledge, ' Hither, stay I 
Pass not the precincts of the day ; 

To night and mystery be blind ! ' 

And so I search and seek my brain. 
Each dusky corner scan and sweep. 
Till 'mid the labyrinth dark and deep 

1 turn, and lose the clew again. 



Eleusis 8 1 

Yet who, once failing, leaves the quest, 
Nor baffled hither, flies beyond ? 
Some ocean beats a golden strond, 

A.nd laves the Islands of the Blest. 



82 Eleusis 



XX. 



Sing, river reeds, a hopeful lay, 

To quell the dirge and "vvail of woe 
That sighs : ' The centuries come and go, 

And Death is sure though Life delay.' 

Sing, as ye sit by yonder stream 

Whose sunless \Yaters rise and fall : 
' Though Death may seem the lord of all. 
Life is the substance, Death the dream.' 

And let your loudest singing bear 

Some strains of hope to sweeten pain : 
' Death's darkest moment is not vain ; 
In death is life, in death the heir. 

■ Through death new hope and life arise ; 

Through death all weakness grows to strength ; 

Through death soul-striving finds at length 
The untrammelled power that in it lies.' 



Eleusis 8^ 

Sing thus, O reeds with dulcet throat, 
Where Life's unending river glides, 
Till those diverse and sullen tides 

To one harmonious current float. 



84 Eleusis 



XXI. 

Yet, harsh Queen Nature, what is this ? 
Is thine a breast without a heart, 
Or mine a soul that lacks the art 

To gain the blessing of thy kiss ? 

I weep, I yield, I plead, I pray : 

Thy lips and Reason's answer not ; 
And the deep anguish of my lot 

Is more to-day than yesterday. 

Yet is there something still unknown, 
Some all-indwelling bond of life. 
Some mystic master-key to strife, 

Some purpose powerful to condone, 

Some sympathy no eye can see, 

Or some imperial perfect spell, — 
Life's soft and tranquil madrigal 

To make all discord harmony. 



Eleusis 8^ 



XXII. 

Sweet-smelling lily, sadly turn 

Thy snow-white face from sun and sky 
Thy sister's funeral train goes by 

To mock the hope of her return. 

The cypress sobs beside the wall 
To see the passion-flower decline, 
And the high-throated eglantine 

Droops as it sees its sisters fall. 

And roses, borne from tender stem 
To merry brides who wed to-day. 
Hear the sad voice of desolate May 

In love's low chants of requiem. 

The speaking eye of heartsease bright. 
The rhythmic rustle of the hay, 
The last low words of dying day. 

The wordless voices of the night. 



86 Eleusis 

Respond to other voices, make 

To rustling hay an answer sweet, 
And feel all victory and defeat 

For Love's divine victorious sake. 

To me, in funeral wrappings laid. 

May voices whisper through the turf ; 
And to the sailor say the surf, 
' Dead sailor, do not be afraid ! ' 

Or I on spiritual pinion near 

May hover when the garden noons, 
And in the swift recurrent Junes 

Breathe in the fragrant atmosphere, 

And clothed in fragrance, far away 
Go incense-like to rise and float 
Where constellated stars remote 

Move stately on their mighty way. 



Eleusis 8y 



XXIII. 

O STAR within whose power and sbope 
My destiny defines her arc, 
Within thy gleaming orb I mark 

No golden characters of hope. 

This astroscope whereon is read 

The heavenly aspects at my birth, 

Hath naught of truth and naught of worth 

In what upon its cones is said. 

A happy destiny was mine, 

As here the fair conjunctions show ; 

But life for me is endless woe. 
And sorrow roundeth her design. 

O star, and spirit regnant there, 

Thro' these dark shades and brooding night 
Flash out in glorious words of hght 

The perfect talisman of despair ! 



88 Beusis 



XXIV. 

And can there be a heart that burns 
As mine 'neath this or foreign sun ? 
An there be such and only one 

Who for the same deep secrets yearns, 

Oh, let it hither send me word 

That twin it looks, and twin it longs 
To sing with me diviner songs 

And music all too rarely heard. 

For I have searched this many a year, 
And many lands have trod in vain. 
To find some sweet responsive strain 

In any clime or hemisphere. 

O twin-born soul ! if far and wide 

Thou dwellest, come and dwell with me ; 
For two are more than one, and we — 

Loud singing may be heard outside ! 



Beusis 8g 



XXV. 

So, Sympathy, thy perfect key- 
To Nature's touch is slow to sound ; 
Or is the secret S23ell unfound 

That tunes thee to thy full degree ? 

I deemed it found ; and yet in vain 
My spirit strove with striving strong 
To lead, like Orpheus, trees along: 

The lyre was echoless again. 

And hills whereto my feet aspired, 

And seas whereon my shallop sailed, 
With baffling purpose countervailed 

The zeal wherewith my heart was fired. 

O fellow-feeling for the weak, 

And inner kinship, — if ye dwell 

On earth, if down from heaven ye fell 

From human hearts and souls ye speak ! 



CANTO III. 



PRELUDE. 



My early Gods in fragments fall, 

My temj)le doors are prostrate cast ; 
Rear up, O great Iconoclast, 

Some God to fill the vacant hall ! 

My lingering steps still bear me on 
And past the gates that ruined lie, 
As some ghost Persian haunting nigh 

The archless ports of Ctesiphon. 

I glance where vacant windows yawn, 
I turn my eyes where altars were ; 
But altar, rite, and minister, 

And all the rest, are gone, are gone. 

I see the spectral form of Will, 

And Nature's phantom hovering near 
And from their wild exultant jeer 

I pass my destiny to fulfill. 



94 Eleusis 

Rear up, great Iconoclast, 

Some God to fill the vacant shrine, 
And let some master heart divine 

How ruined hope may be recast. 

Cry out, great-hearted hope in things. 
And silence disappointment's wail: 
' Though trijDly Daedalus shall fail, 
He moulds at last unfailing wings.' 

Cry out that longing has its use, 

That failure is not always crime ; 
Cry out that hojDe's avoidless prime 

Shall shame the foes that now traduce. 

Cry out that Reason cannot tell. 

And point to Nature's listless sleep ; 
And then with mighty fingers sweep 

The human heart's melodious shell. 

Allay the longing born in me. 

My heart to thine completely wed ; 
And bring in all this discord's stead 

The harmonious strain of sympathy. 



Eleiisis 



95 



I rise to patience's higher plane 

On baffled pur230se's strengthened wings, 
And thro' my new-wrought sense of things 

Discern in loss the seed of gain. 

Across the narrower world, below 
The close horizons of my birth, 
I see a sun-enveloped earth, 

And midnight into morning flow ; 

I see that all things are of kin. 
And move together ; and I feel 
That the great throbs of woe and weal 

Move from one heart they centre in. 

And so to human hearts I fly ; 

In these all human joy is found ; 

For thus the universe is bound 
To love immeasurably high. 



CANTO III. 



I. 

HINGE of Memory, turn for me, 

And fling the gates of Wonder wide ; 
Reveal the secret things that hide 

Behind thy screen of mystery. 

What were the sjDrings that moved intent 
In men of past heroic worth ? 
Did Fellow-feeling rule the earth. 

And Pity brood o'er each event ? 

Oh, turn for me your mystic door ; 

Create anew the things of old ; 

And show the mines of virgin gold 
That now, alas, are known no more ! 



g8 Eleusis 



II. 



I SEE the Athenian triremes gay 

With jDomp of sail and pomp of oar, 
Fnll-wingecl for far Ortygia's shore, 

Float out the blue Saronic bay. 

They pass the isle that Pelops named, 
By soft Calabria, and where 
Enceladus' condign desjiair 

From Etna's heaving bosom flamed. 

And forth the Dorian galleys ride, 
And high is heard the battle-song, 
And for the phantom of a wrong 

Th' Hellenic truce is set aside. 

Weep, Athens, from thy gated pile 

O'er grace, and youth, and glory dead, 
For to the victors' stately tread 

Resounds the Syracusan isle. 



Eleusis gg 

Ah, Hellas, thou wert then undone ! 

The bond of birth was rent in twain, 
And daggers drawn 'gainst brothers stain 
--. That common lineage of the Sun. 



100 Eleusis 



III. 



I LAY upon the Palatine 

When Evening lit her changeless dome, 
And felt the mighty hand of Rome 

Enfold and clasj) itself in mine. 

She drew me where exalts on high 
The hill of Jove's dejDarted reign ; 
And o'er the Tiber's templed plain 

The Past swept living to my eye. 

Around me Rome exultant rings 

With praise and shout of high acclaim, 
As in his car her son of Fame 

New wreaths to deck her grandeur brings. 

And on and on the pageant rolls, 

And up the wide Flaminian street, 
With roar of Rome's returning feet 

And shouts of glad Italian souls ; 



Eleusis I or 

And on and on through seas of men ; 

'lo Triumphe,' Vesta cries, 

' lo Triumphe,' loud rej)lies 
The Forum's strident voice again. 

In Jove's resplendent robes he gleams, — 
A fettered king before him goes ; 
And one has weight of mighty woes, 

And one has glory more than dreams. 

And now the templed height uprears : 
Hall of Fame, O Yale of Dread ! 
And on and on the Triumph's tread 

Goes up the storied path of years. 

Draw, crownless king, thy deepest breath, 

For few, alas, to thee remain ; 

Nor will this Roman lord disdain 
To seal his triumph with thy death. 

For him the ascending Sacred Way, 
And glad Quirinus' stately hall ; 
For thee to dungeon-depths to fall, 

And Death's dominion of decay. 



102 Eleusis 



IV. 

I SEE the centuries to my own ; 

The groans of nations fall and rise, 

The Hun a triple foe defies, 
The Goth and Vandal are o'erthrown, 

And Saxons die to Frankish lance, 
Byzantine lords their captives slay, 
And Syria sees in proud array 

The Crescent and the Cross advance. 

The Danube's floods in woe return, 

The Rhine goes groaning to the sea, 
And France in Avoeful panoply 

Beholds the haughty Kremlin burn ; 

And Europe weeps from east to west 
Above her broad sepulchral plain. 
And crimson poppies kill the grain 

That springs where slaughtered myriads rest. 



Eleusis 103 

O Hope ! the Past was still the same, 
Nor bowed she clown to human need ; 
In Greece, in Rome, in Europe's creed, 

Self was the one Imperial name ; 

No fellow-feeling fired her heart, 
She trod defiant on her way. 
And built on kings of yesterday 

The short-lived triumphs of her art. 



104 Eleusis 



Limn me, soul-jDainter, on your screen 
The transient passions of a day 
Which like sun-shadows sHde and play 

Across the soul of serf or queen ; 

Emblazon men's disguised crime, 
Illumine passion's secret plan. 
And trace the hidden life of man 

Through its mysterious paradigm ; 

Swift thoughts that half-way born expire. 
Swift hopes that faint ere noon is high 
Enthusiasms that must die 

In bitter tears, in bitter fire ; 

Fair visions fading, sunrise slain, 
Mirages leading where they will, 
And dreams whose empty pictures fill 

The solemn halls of self -disdain : — 



Eleusis 10^ 

Limn these, soul-painter, while I sing ; 
The secret thought for me portray, 
And bring to light of living clay 

The hidden self of everything. 



io6 Beusis 



VI. 



I WATCHED the elder men resign 
The reins of family and of state, 
Their gray hairs making consecrate 

To reverence as a holy shrine. 

And age reared up their Capitol, 
Wherein their purer vision saw 
The perfect reading of the law 

Whereby the man must rise or fall. 

And sitting there with high intent, 

With treasures plucked from many years, 
I deemed them victors over fears 

And lords of consummate content. 

Yet when with reverent voice I plead, 
' Oh, give your magic wand to me ! ' 
' We hold no sure and mystic key,' 

Their weeping voices sadly said. 



Eleusis loy 



VII. 



I WATCHED the young men of my time, 
The hojDe and harvest of the State, 
Whose strength proclaims republics great 

And makes Progression's tower upclimb ; 

I watched them reach that noble year 

That stamps the man in perfect flower, 
And take the magic key to power 

Untouched by hope and dead to fear. 

To banquet halls their weakness sped ; 

They scorned the power their birthright gave, 
And, swept on Pleasure's fickle wave, 

Soon lay among the nameless dead. 



io8 Eleusis 



VIII. 

But what these words ? Shall I presume — 
I, who am only neophyte — 
To say what is or is not right, 

And seize the great king-eagle's plume ? 

Yet the impassioned soul must give 

Expression to the impassioned thought, 
No matter if it come to naught : 

Better to die than dumb to live. 

Perennial springs of vigorous flow 

Must find some outlet for their swell ; 
Repressing cannot serve to quell. 

And when winds must, then winds will blow. 



Eleusis log 



IX. 



One flies in chariot to the goal, 

And others toil with weary feet ; 
And one, too proud to make retreat. 

Pours out in agony his soul. 

Nor stops the chariot-borne, nor stays, 
O'er prostrate brother drives him by, 
And with the victor's battle-cry 

Exults to conquer though he slays. 

As onward fly the eternal years 

Unchecked by joy, unheeding pain, 
As o'er the heavenly battle-plain 

Speed on the meteor-slaying sjDheres. 

'T is thus imperious purjjose flings 

All else but self-enthronement down. 
And plucks his bauble of a crown 

From out the hands of slaughtered kings. 



/ 10 Eleusis 

Yet 'mid a myriad cold and chill 

May grow one rich and generous heart, 
That gives a rich and generous part, 

And with a rich and generous will ; 

Like some resplendent ^star he glows 

Through rarely-parted cloud and mist, 
'Till with his golden lustre kissed 

The world with joyance overflows. 

Such then, when found, as victor sing, 
Or chariot-borne or pilgrim meek ; 
For tender helping of the weak 

Proclaims the helper more than king. 



Eleusis III 



Ingenuous heart were rare to find, 
And action answering to the will 
More rare ; but aye the rarest still 

A heart to selfish longings blind. 

For joy will hide a brother's pain ; 

Oar own defies the world to match ; 

And close is fastened up the latch 
When falls the sudden burst of rain. 

self-idolatry ! I hold 

All pagan worships less abject; 

And no delusion thus has wreckt 
The empires and the men of old. 

It slays the hope of growing youth, 
It withers all the growing grain. 
And makes the passionate music vain 

That sounds from out the lips of Truth. 



112 Eleusis 



XI. 



Am I or am I not distraught ? 

Or hath my fancy leaped its bound, 
And deemed the echo of a sound 

The mighty organ-peal of thought ? 

Is there or is there not the prime, 
The perfect ripeness of content 
Embalmed within each sad event, 

Or in the manifold of crime ? 

Is there or is there not concealed 

A purer joy in every woe. 

Whose mystic meaning I shall know 
When thought to knowledge is revealed ? 

Divine me, master, where the heart 
To full jDerennial bloom expands, 
A glorious joy to many lands 

And heaven's fairest counterpart. 



Eleusis 1 1^ 



XII. 

For who hath loved another heart 

With perfect manhood's strongest strength, 
Nor found it traitoroas at length 

To practice some deceitful art ? 

O friend grown falser than the sea, 
And falser far than fick]e wind, 
Wherein more deeply have I sinned 

Than in my full belief in thee ? 

Across the world of yore we fled 

To realms that dip in southern waves. 
Or where in ice-encumbered graves 

Repose the daring and the dead. 

And all thy inmost thoughts were mine. 
Our hearts in perfect rhythm beat, 
And to my soul's most sacred seat 

Thou hadst the magic countersign. 



114 Eleusis 

High thoughts by emulous action grew 
To loftier stature ; far and near 
Through earth's sublimest atmosphere 

On mutual wings our longings flew, 

And near and far impetuous sought 
No goal this side the perfect one, — 
The true and everlasting sun, 

The mighty master-soul of Thought. 

Yet false as fair ! I lay at need, 
As one who in the desert track 
Of some lost caravan must lack 

The sighing shelter of a reed. 

So faith in human heart expired, 

And through the earth alone I trod, 
Till, doubting men, I doubted God 

Were false as those his will had sired. 

For more than swift volcanic fire, 

And more than tides' unstinted flow, 
Or the deep poignancy of woe 

When Nature builds the funeral pyre, 



Eleusis I /5 

Far more than these rolls in to land 
The tide of Self, destroying- all — 
The baron in his haughty hall, 

Or fisher resting on the sand. 

Heart-life is Death's superbest prey, 

His conquest treading all things down, 
And in his gem-incrusted crown 

Shines forth with lustre like the day. 



u6 Eleusis 



XIII. 

But judging men by outward deed 

Were shallow judgment, for the thought 
Gives surer rule ; the rest is naught, — 

But violets sj^ring from violet-seed. 

Still life is mystery at its best ; 

Not subtlest hearing serves to tell 
The sound of yonder minster-bell 

When winds are blowing out the west. 

And so I deem that songs divine 
Are sung by every human heart, 
Though I may lack the master's art 

Of bringing them to living rhyme. 



Eleusis iiy 



XIV. 

And yet to some a subtler sense 
Is heritage from Nature's hand, 
Whereby their fellows' hearts are scanned 

Despite their barriers of defense. 

To such the web more intricate 

Of human thought reveals its clue, 
And keen their insight to construe 

What others bare enigmas rate. 

These measure hearts, and fathom seas 
Of mental ebb and moral flow, 
And by unerring plummet know 

What purpose rules, what motives please ; 

Thus holding hidden reins of power 

They leap to empire ; hap they climb 
To thrones commensurate with time ; 

Or wear the warrior's laurel flower ; 



ii8 Eleusis 

Or, nobler, up the esplanade 

Whereon great Learning rears her dome 
They go sublime, and find a home 

Eternal in her jDroud arcade. 

Imperial pediments uphold 

Their sculptured effigies, and high 
Memorial colimins kiss the sky, 

While history writes their names in gold. 

The true Illuminati they ; 

Their demons not the shades that prest 
At some magician's base behest 

From the deep regions of decay. 

But such as his who far — so far — 
Transcended all the storied past. 
Out-reasoned Reason, and at last 

Glows ancient Athens' brightest star. 



Eleusis iig 



XV. 



Yet, sage who trod the storied shade 

Of Academe in days intense 

With Reason's ripest evidence, 
And felt proud Learning's accolade, 

O hemlock-slain ! for whom a tear 

Was dropped by Reason on her throne, 
Thou couldst not pierce the deep unknown 

Or see beyond the funeral bier ; 

And raising ladders to the sky. 

Or casting stepping-stones where glide 
The silent river and its tide. 

Thou couldst not reason out — to die! 



120 Eleusis 



XVI. 

I DARE not say (as he who sings 

The proudest Teuton of them all) 
That I in Learning's royal hall 

Have sat the proudest of her kings, 

Have swayed an empire broad and free 
Within her ever-sunned domain, 
Yet found the joys of knowledge vain, 

And vain the pleasures of degree ; 

Yet, as my feebler feet have trod 

The paths which greater victors wore, 
I see the graves of many a score 

And everywhere the hillocked sod. 

The way is hard, the laurels few ; 

The heart shrinks up as swells the mind ; 

And gloomy Care sits close behind 
The rider as he struggles through. 



Eleusis 121 



XVII. 

Be crowned, O Knowledge ! hail thee king, 
Yet curse thy stern relentless reign. 
For at thy haughty feet in vain 

In death of hope we weep and cling. 

For tombs that line the ^gean sand, 

The caves where wrapt Egyptians sleep, 
Gray clods that nameless victors heap 

In fair Ausonia's ruined land, — 

All these in ghostly voice combine 

To sing, ' Ah, Learning ! empty name ! 
The true, the j)ure Promethean flame 

Has in it something more divine. 

' In portico, in grove, alone. 

We sought the mystic key to find. 
And learned that not the noblest mind 

Can pass a limit of its own. 



122 Eleusis 

' Remembered sound our names along 
The echoing vistas, yet our fame 
Is but the entrancement of a name 

Embalmed in sweet melodic song. 

' And what to us the haughty school 

That bears our names, or poet's pen ? 
We lived our little span, and then 
Who knows philosopher from fool ? ' 



Eleusis 12^ 



XVIII. 

I SOMETIMES think, on lower planes 
Of thought a better bliss is found, 
And music of a simpler sound 

To greater harmony attains. 

With greater heart-life themes upswell 
Whose rhythms less occultly knit ; — 
Yet may it be the best are writ 

In characters I cannot tell. 

So love in humbler hearts is strong ; 
The subtle music from the skies 
Whose deep enchantment holds the wise 

Will silence earth's divinest song ; 

And so, who looks and longs to find 
Life's sweetest nectar can but fail 
If, givmg heart to phantom pale, 

He leaves love's substance quite behind. 



124 Eleusis 

Spirit and passion intertwine 

By more intense than chemic art, 
And who would live with perfect heart 

Must mingle water with the wine, — 

Must mingle each in due degree, 

And gain with strength a royal grace, 
Till life be as a golden vase 

Graved by Firenze's prodigy. 



Eleusis 12^ 



XIX. 

Proud heart, that, scorning human ties, 
In knowledge seeks diviner bliss, 
And holds affection's clinging kiss 

As unbecoming, — art thou wise ? 

Thou pressest on to undertake 

A problem greater than thy skill, 
Howe'er transcendent, can fulfill. 

And, failing, dar'st to censure fate. 

Give ear to Nature, lest she turn 

To fight and slay thy strong desire. 
And burning thee with inward fire 

Consign thee to dishonored urn. 



126 Eleusis 



XX. 



O FATHER, whose white-fi'osted head 

Repeats the flight of years and strength, 
Hast thou in age discerned at length 

How soul may with its like be wed ? 

And, gazing o'er the scenes that throng 
The memory-chambers of the brain, 
Dost feel the greater joy or pain 

In that thy life has burned so long ? 

What secret mysteries have been learned, 
What deep arcana fathomed out ? 
Art child of hope, or slave of doubt, 

As toward the grave thy face is turned ? 

Methinks thy smile with proof were rife : 

Enough thy humble attitude ; 

Enough the daily blessing sued, 
And all the tenor of thy life. 



Eleusis 



127 



XXI. 

And what of her whose tenderness 
Exceedeth all the world beside, 
A glorious never-ending tide 

That heaven sendeth out to bless ! 

O heart wherein all virtue lies ! 

O mother-hand I O loving face ! 

God's favorite earthly dwelling-place 
Is in the heaven of thy eyes, 

Of purity the flower and bud, 

And love's divinest type and boon ; 
Life turns with thee from night to noon, 

And sees thee ever doing good. 



128 Eleusis 



XXII. 

Sweet confidence that brothers binds, 
Untold the sister's tender love, 
Which, like a blessing from above, 

Through all the warp of manhood wdnds ; 

The ready hands, the unwearied heart, 
And smile concealing often pain. 
The tears that like the gentle rain 

In swift and ready pity start ; 

Though all my life may seem undone, 
Though woes impend in days to be, 
Preserve, kind heaven, unto me, 

This earthly blessing, if but one. 



Eleusis i2g 



XXIII. 

DEAR, dead, early love of mine ! 

In tears and weeping let me sing 
How Death is lord of everything, 
And conquers what seems most divine. 

The days are dull with dripping rain ; 

The stars have wandered from their spheres ; 

The phantom forms of buried years 
Come forth to mock my soul agairi ; 

1 hear the footsteps of the dead 

Go echoing through the silent night, 
And to my sublimated sight 
Returns the bride of yore I wed. 

My heart in beatings swift recalls 
The perfect union of my youth, — 
Till the deep mantle of the truth 

Dispels my vision as it falls. 



1^0 Beusis 



XXIV. 

To LOVE, to lose, again to meet, 

To clasp with rapture to the heart, 
And then behold our joy depart, — 

Oh, such is love's condign defeat. 

For love was mine in days of yore ; 

And then, with clinging voice and hand, 
She sailed from this inclement land 

To south and sunny island-shore. 

The days passed by, the year grew old ; 

Full many suns they rose and set ; 

And many moons, their crescents wet, 
Came dripping up from Ocean's cold, 

Before her shijD with happy sail 

Came heaven-wafted o'er the sea. 
And my dear love came back to me 

With cheek that was no longer pale. 



Eleusis r^i 



XXV. 

For love will livie, though lovers part ; 

And distance makes the absent sweet ; 

And hearts that once together beat 
Nor time nor space can tear apart. 

And eve is sweetest following toil ; 

Divinest joy from sorrow springs ; 

And an intenser sense of things 
Indwells the mystery of recoil. 

But joy's supremest moment flies 

Like some swift bird, or swifter dream, 
Or falling star whose dazzling beam 

Lights up the heavenly slope and dies. 

And so my love athwart my life 

Passed, leaving radiant memories there ; 

Sweet memory but intense despair 
And sorrow's carnival of strife. 



JJ2 Eleusis 

For ere the wedding year grew hale, 
Her soft caresses grew more weak ; 
O love ! O hope ! I cannot speak 

Of what I could not countervail. 



Eleusis ijj 



XXVI. 

How dear your memory, forest wide, 
Beneath whose ample linden-lines 
Clad in the wild grape's gracious vines 

We met that golden eventide. 

So sweet the songs she sang at will 

To charm the listening woodland round 
Meseemed some glorious nymph had crowned 

Her lover by the sylvan rill. 

And, lightly parting boughs that meet, 
Unseen I saw her where she sate 
Throned on the golden leaves that wait 

The bitter coming of the sleet. 

O joyous eve, O royal hours 

That brought the i3rize and palm of life ! 

Ye fled as flies in Autumn strife 
The gay queen-carnival of flowers. 



i34 Eleusis 



XXVII. 

So SOFTLY kiss, religious yew, 

The velvet of yon hillock's crest ; 
Breathe gently, zephyrs, from your west, 

And fragrant leaves, wild roses, strew, — 

For she is lying here ; above 

Weeps always pensive asphodel. 
And fond memorial verses tell 

The birth, the life, the death of love. 

For hope has fled with love away ; 

My Summer yields to Autumn rain ; 

And ere the Winter bow again 
Before the rose-decked wheels of May, 

The cold pine branches as they wave 
Shall dirge her lately frozen mound. 
And winding-sheets of snow be bound 

About her lonely northern grave. 



Eletisis 7^3 

Give ear, O wind that tireless flows 
An ocean round the whirling world, 
Be not in roughest billows hurled 

Above her canopy of snows ; 

Sing, softly sing, and do not weej) 
In anger with the giant Death, 
But come with music on thy breath 

To soothe her where she lies asleep. 

But me, no suns can warm anew ; 

No song outsing my threnody : 

For she was all in all to me, 
And I, O love, was all to you. 



1^6 Eleusis 



XXVIII. 

Yet wherefore sorrow ? Surely this 
Were better far than life's deep pain, 
And sweeter than the world's disdain 

Is Nature's pure untrammelled kiss. 

eyes whose glance was all delight ! 

O heart that sympathetic beat ! 
O lips and kisses swift and sweet ! 
So soon to lose ye, — was it right ? 

1 cast me down along thy side ; — 

O heaven, if thee I did not dread. 
Far better, better to be dead 
Than live when love must be denied. 

For nowhere find I heart to feel 
For mine in this intenser grief. 
And out no human soul relief 

Comes swiftly answering my appeal. 



Beusis 1 37 

As one who in the silent night 

Grows weak with phantoms strange and dire. 

And feels a conquerless desire 
For human touch or human sight, 

So I, \vith sorrow bowed, demand 
Some word to give me half relief, 
And in the trembling of my grief 

Would clasp some kindly human hand. 

Yet Sorrow bids me live alone ; 

My castle-gate no guests unclose ; 

And the sole friend who feels my woes 
Lies imder yon escutcheoned stone. 

I weej) for higher aid than comes 
From human love's intensest tie ; 
'T is heaven alone can calm the cry 

Of heart-bereaved and widowed ones. 



ij8 Eleusis 



XXIX. 

So LOVE has failed me ! divine, 
My weary spirit, is there more 
In hmiian heart's most inmost core 

Than love when love and life combine ? 

The mind is naught, and naught the heart. 
And Nature lies in endless sleep ; 
So am I left anew to weep 

The shattered pantheon of my art, — 

To weep, till, eyes with weeping blind, 
A new Bellerophon, I grope 
The Aleian plain whose narrow scope 

But types my blind and barriered mind. 

Like him to course the doubled track, 
But not, alas ! like him to die ; 
Bruised, bleeding, blind, I groan and sigh, 

The Eternal Silence answers back. 



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